


Strange

by seratonation



Category: Stargate Atlantis
Genre: Birthday, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-03
Updated: 2008-05-03
Packaged: 2017-11-02 06:24:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,639
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/365923
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/seratonation/pseuds/seratonation
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>People on Atlantis were acting strange, John observed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Strange

**Author's Note:**

> Spoilers for Before I sleep and The Eye if you squint really hard and do this, also written in two days, with hardly any checking over. 
> 
> Unbeta’d, this is for [](http://tx-tart.livejournal.com/profile)[ **tx_tart**](http://tx-tart.livejournal.com/)'s informal birthday celebration for Joe Flanigan, [](http://tx-tart.livejournal.com/187824.html)LJ style. It was meant to be shorter, but well *shrugs* it grew legs. I haven't seen past The Return pt1 so I'm assuming that the Athosians went back to the mainland.
> 
> Happy Birthday Joe! 

People on Atlantis were acting strange, John observed as he walked down the corridor to the mess. He’d seen three different people duck out of view when they saw him walking their way. The last had been Lorne. John had been about to walk over, when Lorne’s eyes had widened, and he walked around the corner with something behind his back. It was strange.

 

He decided to drop in to see Rodney, and maybe drag him to eat of he hasn’t already. Rodney was deep in a whispered conversation with Radek when he walked in, but when they saw him they stopped, Rodney blocking the computer screen they had been huddled over as Radek quickly pressed buttons. 

 

“What’s up?” John asked, going for casual.

 

“Nothing, why’d you ask?” Rodney was trying to go for casual as well, but they all knew he couldn’t bluff to save his life; his ears were turning red. 

 

John shook his head, so that’s their game. “No reason, everyone’s just acting a little strange, is all.”

 

“Really?” Rodney said as Radek stood up, “I haven’t noticed, hey,” he snapped his fingers at John, “have you had lunch yet?”

 

“No, I came by to see if you wanted to come along.”

 

“Great! Let’s go.” And he led John away from the lab, leaving Radek to stare incredulously at their retreating backs.

 

They where serving hot dogs at the mess, but that was normal, what wasn’t normal was how there were people whispering everywhere instead of the usual loud talking that happened in the mess, and when people noticed him looking they stopped talking all together. Strange!

 

After lunch Teyla asked him if he could help in the mainland. The Athosians wanted to make more space for farming, now that they are trading with other people of Pegasus and they needed help with some trees that were too large to remove by hand. 

 

“They have asked specifically for you, colonel,” she said, smiling.

 

“Sure,” he said, “I’ll let Weir know–”

 

“No!” Rodney said quickly, just as Teyla opened her mouth. “I mean, don’t worry, I’ll tell her.”

 

John frowned at him. “Oo-kay,” he looked at Teyla, “I’ll just get my stuff and some C-4.”

 

Teyla gave him a nod. “I will meet you in the ‘jumper bay in 15 minutes.”

 

“Cool.” 

 

The work with the Athosians was easy; it was mostly just putting C-4 in strategic places and then blowing them up. He didn’t know why they wanted him in particular because any one of the marines would have been happy to help.

 

They were finished by the time the sun started to sink below the tree line, and he and Teyla headed back. He headed straight to his quarters to take a shower and then maybe have dinner and a movie with his team, but when he came out of the shower he saw the light on his radio flashing. He hoped there hadn’t been an emergency while he was scrubbing under his nails. 

 

“This is Sheppard,” he said in to the radio, putting it on, “is everything OK?”

 

“Everything is fine, John,” Elizabeth’s voice came through and he gave a tiny sigh of relief, “we need you to come to the Gate Room for a moment though, Rodney’s found something interesting.” 

 

He frowned, _interesting?_ “I’ll be right there.”

 

As he walked to the Gate Room, trying not to rush, he tried to figure out what she had meant when she said interesting, but when he arrived, the Gate Room was quite and dark. He slowed down, thinking back to Elizabeth on the radio, she hadn’t sounded strained or forced, at least he didn’t think so, which meant she wasn’t being held hostage, maybe the interesting thing had cut out the power? But that didn’t explain where everyone had gone. There was nothing for it, he had to speak up.

 

“Hello?” he said, and his voice sounded so forlorn in the usually busy room, but then the lights came on all at once.

 

“SURPRISE!!” everyone yelled as they appeared out from behind consoles, staircases or walls.

 

When his eyes adjusted to the lights he saw balloons, streamers, and two tables, one laden with food, and the other with brightly covered packages. Presents. The giant poster that had unfurled with the lights read Happy Birthday in colourful letters. He couldn’t stop the giant grin on his face, even if he wanted to.

 

He saw Elizabeth walking up to him, closely followed by Rodney, Teyla and Ronon. 

 

“You guys didn’t have to do this,” he said through his grin.

 

“Of course we did,” Elizabeth said, also smiling, “It’s not everyday one of the leaders has a birthday. Besides, we thought anybody who looks that good at 40 should be celebrated.” 

 

“Oh, man,” he said, “how did you know?”

 

“Mums the word.” She gave him a feral grin, which turned in to a smile again, “Happy Birthday, John.” She hugged him, and then walked of to talk to someone else.

 

Ronon, Teyla and Rodney came forward then. “You planned this,” he said, shaking a finger at them.

 

“It was Elizabeth’s idea,” Rodney said defensively.

 

“Relax Rodney, it’s pretty cool, and I bet you were the one who told her.” 

 

Rodney opened his mouth but Teyla interrupted him, “actually, it was me,” she said, cutting him off, “Rodney told me, and I thought it would be good to celebrate it as a city.”

 

John grinned again. “Well, in that case.” 

 

She came forward and they touched foreheads in the traditional Athosian ‘hug’. 

 

“May all your days be filled with as much happiness as I see in you now.” 

 

His cheeks were starting to hurt, but he couldn’t do anything to stop himself, she stepped back and Ronon came forward, gave him a clap on the shoulder and then pulled him in to one of his spine cracking hugs. 

 

“You’re an old man now,” he told John, “It’s not going to make me go easy on you.”

 

He laughed. “I wouldn’t want anything less.” 

 

Ronon grinned and nodded, and he walked of with Teyla, leaving only Rodney standing in front of him in the middle of the Gate Room, surrounded by people. 

 

They stood in silence for a moment, Rodney not meeting his eyes. 

 

“This is where you say ‘happy birthday, John’,” John prompted him. 

 

“Right, right,” Rodney said, waving a hand, then he straitened up, “happy birthday, John.”

 

John grinned again. “Thanks,” he said, waving a hand around to include the party and decorations.

 

“I– It was–” Rodney began.

 

“But you started the ball rolling, and I bet you did a lot of the planning, the control freak you are.”

 

“Hey!” Rodney said indignantly, giving him a slap on the shoulder with the back of his hand, “maybe I shouldn’t give you this, after all.” He waved an envelope that John hadn’t noticed before.

 

He knew his eyes brightened, “What is it?” he asked.

 

“It was supposed to be a present, but if you’re going to call me names…” He pulled the envelope out of reach, behind his back.

 

“ _Rodney!_ ” he whined. “I promise I’ll be good.”

 

“Alright, alright,” he said, handing him the envelope, giving in to the whine and puppy look combination, “I, uh got you other stuff as well, over there,” he waved a dismissive hand at the present’s table, “but I thought it would be safer to give you this personally.”

 

“What is it?” 

 

“Open it.” There was a strange gleam in Rodney eyes, and he rocked on the balls of his feet as John ripped open the envelope, and pulled out a piece of paper with Rodney’s neat handwriting. It read:

 

_‘This Coupon allows the owner to seven sexual favours of his choosing.’_

 

And underneath, it had seven little squares, and one year’s expiry date.

 

If John’s grin got any bigger, he thought the top of his might fall of, and he laughed. “I have to say this is the best gift I’ve ever gotten.”

 

“You haven’t opened the others yet,” Rodney pointed out.

 

“I know, but this, I’m definitly gonna love using.”

 

“If you’re _up_ to it, of course,” Rodney said. 

 

“What is that supposed to mean?”

 

“Just that now you’re turning 40 things might be a little… hard, or not so much.”

 

John gaped at him, torn between laughing and being insulted, but he was saved from having to reply by someone yelling “Speech!” over the crowd and people picked up on it until it was a mantra. A cup was handed to him and he was ushered up a couple of the centre stairs so that he was head and shoulders above everyone else as everyone cheered. He took a gulp of his very alcoholic drink as they quietened down.

 

“I haven’t had any cake yet,” he told them and they laughed, “uh, ok,” he paused a moment to collect his thoughts, then he looked out over the crowed, “today I thought you were all acting strange, people whispering everywhere, ducking around a corners, yeah I saw you,” he pointed at Lorne as they all laughed again, Lorne with them, holding out his cup, “but I have to say I didn’t see this coming. This is the best birthday I’ve ever had, and at this moment, I don’t want to be anywhere else.” He paused, “wow, what’s in this drink? I would never say that sober.” they all laughed again, relieved he wasn’t turning mellow on them.

 

“May we all look that good at 40!” Rodney said, holding out his cup in a toast.

 

“Here, here!” They all yelled and drank to the toast.

 

Later that night, when there were only a few stragglers left, and he was in what could only be called a puppy pile with his team mates, he mused that really, he wouldn’t change this for anything.


End file.
